You Gotta Be Dirty: The Outlaws Motorcycle Club In & Around Wisconsin Kindle Edition

If you're interested in outlaw biker culture this book should be high on your reading list. It stands alone in its true crime approach to the subject matter. It wasn't written by a retired biker looking to bank some retirement funds or a government infiltrator romanticizing their paid snitch work. It's not perfect but it's loaded with detailed reporting gleaned from police and news sources - a good counter-balance to the books by Donald Charles Davis that focus on the over-reaching arms of the law when it comes to bikers, including non-criminal ones.The biggest problem with this book is the atrocious lack of editing. The writing is generally excellent, clear and fast-readin and very informativeg, but there are typos or missing words on nearly every page. It was so pervasive it made me wonder if the author just cut and pasted police reports written in truncated police lingo, or if he suffers from some kind of brain disorder that makes him skip words.The style is also a bit flat and matter-of-fact. There's little attempt made to dramatize the stories. In one case I noted that by simply reversing the order of several paragraphs he could have created a suspensful narrative, instead he simply stated the cold facts.That said, the book is well worth reading. It focuses mainly on the Wisconsin chapters of the Outlaws and the law officers out to get them. If all the witness testimony was true, then these chapters were among the most violent and deadly in the biker world, bordering on psychotic.While the author acknowledges his law enforcement sources, not all the law officers come off as sterling characters, and some of the local judges are appalling. Without boldly stating it, he presents enough evidence for the reader to figure out that some judges, cops and police personnel were deep in the pockets of the bikers. Whatever the case, it seems the Outlaws often outwitted the police and the Feds.

The order did come right on time, but I wasn't too sure about a lot of the stuff the author described. Sounded like half phoney baloney to me.

What i’d like to know is where did this author get his information? Who did he interview, question on this book? I’m asking as I saw the part where there was a fire where an adult and infant perished because of this fire, he also said the mother of the infant also perished..this last part I know for a fact is a lie. The mother did Not perish. So if that was a lie, how can one believe that this book is truthful?

What is it about bikers that makes others want to emulate them, join their organization and eventually create heinous crimes? In the book, "You Gotta Be Dirty", author, Michael Grogan, did an excellent job of enlightening the reader about the allure of the Outlaws, Hells Angels, and other motorcycle gangs (there are far more than I ever realized).Where did the motorcycle gang culture begin? Grogan shared on a couple of theories. One such conjecture was that post war veterans,seeking their niche after their years of service in World War II, found camaraderie in the biker culture. The second theory was that it could have been life imitating art when the movie, "The Wild One", starring Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin became the inspiration for the colors and club logos of the Outlaws and the Hells Angels. I won't elaborate because it is a fun piece of trivia to read up on for your next party. Good stuff though. I may have to find a copy of that movie.Another element of the book that fascinated me was the role of women in motorcycle gangs. With some of the things that happened to these women, you have to wonder, why would any woman want to become involved with a biker? What's in it for them? Are they simply drawn to the bad boy image? This facet of the book was captivating, albeit in a disturbing sort of way.Grogan's book has plenty of stories along the way that just leave you shaking your head in disbelief. Many of these stories are sad and quite distressing, a couple of them have some humor to them, and many of them leave you wondering what happened to many of these key players. I actually looked many of them up and found images and stories about these real-life characters. Quite honestly I became somewhat addicted to finding out more about these individuals. Are they still alive, in jail, or roaming about free? When you get to the very end, there is a reward for the reader, as Grogan shares a recent development in one of the unsolved cases he elaborated about in his book. For everyone who has ever lived vicariously through the show "CSI", this tidbit will get you revved up.Great book for those looking for a fresh look at motorcycle gangs, those who like true crime, and those, who like me, can't resist getting a closer look in the minds of deviants and what makes them tick. When you get to those last few chapters, you can feel the climax building. Grogan did not disappoint.

The book recounts the history that made the outlaws in Milwaukee famous and infamous. With parallels to the organized crime of the Italian mafia the book paints a portrait of how organized they were. The book recounts crimes but from a law enforcement perspective. There are pages dedicated to the rivalry between Heaven's devil's mc and the outlaws; yet there is no interviews with former outlaws or heaven's devil's. No mention of if there were attempts made. Heaven's devils are still around to this day, getting all sides of the story would make the conflict more clear as to how it started, why it escalated, was it all one sided and why it stopped. There is mention of other clubs in the Milwaukee/Wisconsin area but no mention as to why some clubs were allowed to exist and others were made to quit. We know they were beaten but why is kind of a big deal. Just wished the book was more rounded with the principle players side of the story. There is chapters dedicated to the conflict between the hells angels and the outlaws in the 1990's. There's no examination that I can recall why a newly patched club (stateline) was expected to lead the charge but chapters from that state weren't. There are parts of the book where you're going to say to yourself "there's no way they're that lucky" for the outlaws or law enforcement. Overall I would recommend the book to any in the state of Wisconsin, interested in true crime, or the history of one of the most notorious outlaw motorcycle clubs.

All Good

Very informative a little hard to read at times. Would like to do some follow up research into their Australian operations

This is a decent read but there are a ton of grammatical and sentence errors. Clearly the editors were asleep at the switch or were in a rush to get the book out quickly.